Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
April 1942. "Bannack, Montana. Old hotel." The supposedly haunted Hotel Meade. Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Winter visit to Bannack?
https://nwtravelmag.com/bannack-state-park-ghost-town-montana/
The first time I visited Bannack in the 1990's the Park Ranger/Guide said that the State of Montana kept the buildings in a state of "arrested decay". I revisited the town again last year. All the buildings looked the same - so "arrested decay" is working. The Hotel Meade still looks just the way it did when John Vachon photographed it.
Would absolutely love to go back in time and see the workings inside the hotel. Thank goodness it was preserved!
The Hotel Meade has since been restored and was recently used in the 2017 movie "The Ballad of Lefty Brown." It is one of many original structures of the ghost town of Bannack, now a state park in Montana.
Shorpy's latest photo sets seem like they've been guided by Sunset's
"Ghost Towns of the West" (And IIRC, Central City was listed as a "tourist" town, while Bannack was rated "pure").
In case you're wondering what the plaque mounted on the rock says, here it is.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5